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 through the neck opening is as necessary to the plant as the oxygen it receives from the depths of the water; thus also the water remains sweet much longer than in our small-necked vases, where it so quickly becomes foul.

Many are the odd and fanciful significances connected with these Japanese receptacles. For instance, the hanging vases so numerous and quaint in form came into use through the idea that flowers presented by an esteemed friend should not be placed where they could be looked down upon, so they were raised and hung. And in the hanging bamboo vases the large, round surface on top is supposed to represent the moon, and the hole for the nail a star. The cut, or opening, below the top is called fukumuki the "wind drawing through place."

The low, flat vases, more used in summer than winter, not only give variety in the form of receptacles, but, as with vines and hanging vases, make it possible to arrange plants of bulbous and water growth in [203]